Italian Cypress Turning Yellow/Brown

dwrecktorMay 25, 2010

My Italian Cypresses have been turning yellow/brown since winter. We had an unusually long winter here in Dallas w/ several late snow storms. Could that have caused some disease or root kill? What do you think?

Other Cypress trees like Arizona and Leyland... get some interior leaf loss this time of year. I would not worry about it. If the browning moves to the outer foliage you might have some other problems. Remove the turf around the base of the tree for better growth.

These trees like well-drained soil. The extra rainfall so far this year could be affecting them, particularly if not in a well-drained area. Removing the grass as mentioned above out to a couple of feet from the trunk and replacing with mulch would be a good move.
Is the tree in full sun and is it in a well-drained location?

Thanks for the responses. Yeah I plan on mulching around the tree w/ river rocks, but there's actually 13 of them in a row, so I'm designing & budgeting how to make that happen.

"Is the tree in full sun and is it in a well-drained location?"

Yes it's in full sun. I didn't mention this in the 1st post, but the tree is along the fence line and my neighbor has 3 medium to large weeping willow along his side of the fence. I know those trees are water hogs, so would that make the soil where my cypress is well drained?